• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

worth swapping a 6970 for a 580?

stealthgeek

stealthgeek

stealthgeek

Associate
Joined
17 Jan 2007
Posts
663
Location
London
As title says, my mate wants to offload his 580, he's offered it to me for £250 mates rates, which I already know is a great price, but would the performance increase be worth the hassle? Ive looked ata few benchmarks and they all seem quite different depending on the site, most say the power draw would be about 60W more, but performance is either less or quite a bit more....
 
stealthgeek said:
As title says, my mate wants to offload his 580, he's offered it to me for £250 mates rates, which I already know is a great price, but would the performance increase be worth the hassle? Ive looked ata few benchmarks and they all seem quite different depending on the site, most say the power draw would be about 60W more, but performance is either less or quite a bit more....
Click to expand...

You wouldn't actually notice the performance increase, and its a poor price, HD 7000 cards due in, what, a month, that will come close to 70-80% performance increase on your 6970 that will also cost £250-300. 580gtx for £250 6 months ago, great, maybe less than a month till the new generation, horrible. Think about it like this, time its the top card around 6 months ago £250/6, £40, £250/1 month, £250. Okay thats overly dramatic but basically yeah, wait a month and £250 will get you significantly more performance, with less power than even your 6970, likely quieter than both and some fancy new features probably.

If the 7970 comes out in October, and is £280, and is 50% faster than a 580gtx, how much do you think the 580gtx will be worth in a month second hand? if you can get a 7970 for £280, would you even pay £200, would you pay £150, how much would you get second hand. Basically you're buying a card right before the month where it will depreciate in value faster than any other product on the market. Buy a 580gtx in 2 months for £150 second hand, or a 7970 first hand ;)
 
Not worth the change. Could always get a second 6970 or 6950 and crossfire. Performance would be better than that of a single 7 series Gpu, probably.
 
The HD7000 mid/high products release timing is terrible, i can only think the amount of PC gamers looking to upgrade to ready for the pre-xmas release of big game titles only to have a choice of a GFX cards that a due an iminent refresh.

Personally i sold my gaming rig 6 months ago knowing i could play my current crop of games on an alienware laptop, I was going to wait for the next big crysis type PC game and then upgrade. Well BF3 is due in Oct and it requires a top spec GPU. The current choices are either:

a) Dont care about future tech and money - just buy a 580gtx knowing it will half in value if not more shortly after xmas.
b) Play it conservatively on medium/low with a cheap 6870/6950 knowing to sell without a big loss and upgrade to the HD7970 when it comes out.
c) Look to find a 580gtx, 570gtx or a 6970 2nd hand for a cheap price, looking again to sell on when the next generation comes out.

What to do?!
 
Last edited:
PsychoPigeon said:
I was about to buy a 6950 but after reading this thread seems the wise choice is to wait 2 months.. even if it means playing on a 4890
Click to expand...

your card will be ok.

Even I am thinking on getting rid of one of my 6950s (unlocked) whilst is still worth some money to save up for the 7000s series.
 
PsychoPigeon said:
I was about to buy a 6950 but after reading this thread seems the wise choice is to wait 2 months.. even if it means playing on a 4890
Click to expand...

That's a different situation, I reckon. If you have the money I'd go for an upgrade from a 4890. There's a lot of games between now and the 7K series release, and there actually is no guarantee when we'll see these cards emerge/how much they'll be/how they'll perform. If I were you I'd get the 6950, it's a great card for a great price.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom